So far, this week's longreads have been focused on food. Today's article is about drinks, specifically beer. It looks at the changing dynamics of the global beer industry and how a few major players have consolidated to control the market for production and distribution.
"Last Call" by Tim Heffernan
Published in the Washington Monthly, November/December 2012
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/november_december_2012/features/last_call041131.php?page=all&src=longreads&buffer_share=842dd
Eric
Really interesting...about 2 years ago I thought I was on to a great business success dealing with AB/InBev distributors throughout the country. Virtually every single one i talked to (and i talked to over 70) found their trucking costs and services to be unacceptable. It runs through an AB system called "transportation advantage" where AB essentially sets up all trucking decisions and distributors simply have to pay. after doing detailed analysis for several distributors they were convinved we offered a valuable service and went to AB to tell them of a plan to change. The response was: go ahead and change, just know your cost per keg is going to increase by X amount. This would end up costing them all an incredible amount. From the conversations it was clear the InBev leadership was clamping down and letting people know they had few if any rights/options if they wanted to continue working with them. This article makes the overall plight more apparent. However, trying to link that direcdtly to alcoholism i think is a stretch
ReplyDeleteThat story is so frustrating to me and didn't even affect my personal business. The whole argument behind consolidation (like acquisitions made by InBev) is that they improve efficiency and productivity. But in this case, the consolidation just supplied the monopoly powers that allowed them to prevent efficiency (your business proposal).
ReplyDeleteAs far as the tie to alcoholism, I guess we will have to see. I tend to think that if there is abundant and cheap alcohol, it will be likely to increase consumption. That said, I'm not sure that the amount of increased consumption caused by these business changes will be enough to produce noticeable society-wide ramifications. In my opinion a better way to limit the affects of increased consumption is through more education (for example, recognize that drinking will start before 21 and help encourage responsibility at a younger age) and also through strict enforcement of laws against drunk driving.
Eric